A Settlement for Darklings
The only light in the otherwise pervasively dark chamber came from the shimmering, whorling tattoos on Rhianne's cheeks, as well as those running down her neck, shoulders, and arms - her fine dress of black silk leaving those parts of her gray skin bare. Aleina recognized the dress. It, along with two others like it, had been looted from the lair of a medusa who no longer needed them after her neck encountered the edge of Jhelnae's abyssal blade. The darkling bard seemed to be able to ignore the garment's rather gruesome ownership history and wear it. Aleina could relate. She and Jhelnae owned the other two. While exposure to sunlight would ruin the drow fabric the dresses made for excellent night clothes for lounging about the Trollskull, the feel of the fine silk against skin making them exceedingly comfortable.
Rhianne used her dress for much the same purpose. When they reached her chambers, she'd discarded her cloak and other garments until only the silk dress remained. The aasimar had not seen the bard in such a state of undress since soon after being introduced to her. She and her husband, at first meeting, had been potentially perilous unknowns, swathed in layers of cloth that left no skin exposed. To quell the misgivings of traveling with them Rhianne invited the women of their group to a bathing pool where she revealed what lay beneath all the concealing clothes. Shared dangers since then made the darklings trusted friends. The fact that this was the first time since the bathing pool that Rhianne was able to shed her cloak and relax in their presence was a testament of just how much of their time together in the Underdark was spent running or fighting for their lives.
Nearly all of it.
"So, this is it," Jhelnae said. "The beginnings of your darkling settlement."
"This is it," Rhianne said with a hand flourish at their surroundings. "The beginnings of Diar's and my dream. A haven for our people where they can be safe from light. Though I never imagined it would also be blessed with warmth from vents to a pit containing a fire primordial. King Bruenor gave us a whole wing of abandoned residences. As well as noble titles. You look upon Lady Rhianne Dubh Catha."
The darkling bard laughed as she pointed at herself, and her white teeth flashed in the light of her own glowing tattoos. She had a nice smile, her amusement reaching her nearly pupiless eyes. Aleina found herself regretting, as she smiled back, that her friend's face typically needed to be hidden in the depths of a cowl. They were in something akin to an underground parlor, the aasimar occupying an upholstered chair on the opposite side of a low table from the sofa where Rhianne and Jhelnae sat. Mialee, the wood-elf druid who through some strange twist of fate was also in Gauntlgrym, sat in a chair next to Aleina's. The aasimar could just make out the silhouette of a bookshelf against a stone wall, despite the light from the bard's tattoos interfering with her dark vision. The shelves of the bookshelf were bare except for a few thin tomes that Aleina recognized as Rhianne's travel journals - her friend's new home was so new she hadn't had the time to acquire any books.
Presently, another entered the room bearing a tray of goblets. The newcomer shared Rhianne's white hair, gray skin, and nearly pupiless eyes, but bore no glowing tattoos. He was short, gnome sized, with a large sharp nose that dominated his face. His boots did not hide the cloven-footed nature of his feet, rather having been designed to accommodate them.
"Thank you, Cor," Rhianne said as he skirted the light of her tattoos, using the shadows made by the other seated occupants of the room, and set the tray of refreshments on the table.
"You are most welcome," Cor said, bowing before he left the room.
The aasimar caught a glimpse of his teeth as he spoke and found, like his feet, they were misshappen and bestial rather than like those of an elf or a human.
"Your people are born like that?" Mialee asked. "Before they get their tattoos?"
Aleina suppressed a wince. The bard had given a summary of the Summer Queen's curse that afflicted her people as they walked here from King Bruenor's feast and encountered the few darklings inhabiting the place. Inquiring more about it might be considered rude.
"It is the way we are born," Rhianne answered, her voice showing no hint of offense, but her smile falling away. "As I explained, our curse makes light poison to us. Eventually a darkling, no matter how careful, absorbs enough light that they must bleed it out through tattoos such as these or die."
She gestured at the glowing symbols on her skin.
"Then we become what we call an elder," the bard continued. "The bleeding of the light changes us and we take this taller, more elf-like form, presumably closer to how we originally looked before the curse."
"You wait until the accumulated light you've absorbed might kill you?" Mialee asked. "No one chooses to get the tattoos earlier?"
Rhianne cocked her head in consideration.
"Some do," she said. "But many of us do not survive the tattooing ritual. So, most of us delay as long as possible. I did. And I also found there are many advantages to being short of stature, particularly underground, and even being cloven footed has benefits. I think I was a bit nimbler and quicker previously. I know how it seems to others. That this is the better, superior, form. But I'd lived for over sixty years in the other and was quite terrified of the transformation. Thankfully Diar had taken on his tattoos years earlier and was there to guide and encourage me."
Aleina found it hard to imagine her darkling friend being shorter and cloven footed. It was even harder to imagine Diarnghan in the elf-like body of an elder while his wife remained in the younger darkling form, but apparently, they had lived together that way for years.
"It's a terrible curse," Mialee said, frowning in sympathy.
"It is," Rhianne said, nodding. "But we survive. And while there is life there is hope. This settlement is Diar's and my dream, but I have another. A fantasy really. Which is perhaps someday one of us will craft something - a story, a poem, a song, a sculpture, a painting, a spell, or an enchantment - some piece of art which will so move the Summer Queen's heart she will forgive our ancestor's transgression and lift our curse."
A moment of silence followed the darkling bard's statement before the wood-elf druid took up one of the goblets from the tray and raised it.
"To dreams and fantasies," she said.
"To dreams and fantasies," Rhianne repeated, taking up the toast.
Aleina and Jhelnae retrieved and raised goblets as well and, after clinking them together, they all drank. It was only water, cool and refreshing. After Bruenor's feast the aasimar didn't want to consume anything else for a ten-day at least, or so she felt at the moment. Yet it had been clear the darkling bard wanted to offer some sort of gesture of hospitality on this visit to her new home and so water had been settled on.
"I'm surprised Kuhl and Aravae went to spar after everything we ate and drank," Aleina said. "I'd throw up if I tried to do something physical."
"She's eager to show him what she learned training to dual wield," Mialee said, rolling her eyes. "You know how many evenings I had to deal with her slashing and dancing around our campsites?"
"A lot?" Jhelnae asked with a querying tilt of the head.
"And she'd get so irritable when the training wasn't going well," the wood-elf complained. "I'd tell her dinner was ready and get back 'You broke my concentration! I almost had it that time!'"
She shook her head and blew out a breath in an exasperated laugh before continuing.
"Forgive me if I didn't know fighting and spell casting against imaginary opponents required total concentration. After that, whenever those blades were drawn, I wild shaped and practiced flying. It was better for our friendship."
"Wait," Aleina said. "You can fly while wild shaped now?"
When she'd last seen Mialee the druid could shift into the shape of a bird but had not yet been able to use her wings to fly.
"Actually fly?" the wood-elf said. "Only twice. But I am getting fairly good at flitting between trees without crashing my beak into a trunk or branch, which is far better than flapping furiously on the ground and never getting airborne."
Her words were modest, but her pleased smile showed pride.
"That's great, Mialee," Jhelnae said. "Be glad Sky convinced Eldeth to show her the fire primordial's pit. Because when she finds out, she's going to pester you for a demonstration."
The druid laughed, then visibly contemplated the stone walls and ceiling.
"Never wild shaped into a bat," she said, thoughtfully. "Probably should try it out here in Gauntlgrym before we start traveling in the Underdark. But speaking of practice and training, what have you two been up to?"
She glanced at the half-drow and then the aasimar.
"Us?" Aleina asked.
She and Jhelnae shared a confused look at the wood-elf's question.
"Hugging you almost felt like hugging Aravae," Mialee explained. "You're both more solid. More…"
She trailed off and flexed her arms and shoulders.
"Now that she mentions it," Rhianne said, studying half-drow and aasimar over the goblet she lowered from her lips. "You both do look a little stronger."
"Oh, that," Jhelnae said with a snort. "Someone decided we should regularly wake up before the sun rises, hike up a mountain, and train with a crazy hermit-monk."
"Only a few times every ten-day," Aleina said.
After training from Hlam helped her escape the grasp of a skeleton in a mausoleum in the City of the Dead and then also get free of the sticky, glue-like substance on the shield of a kuo-toa in the lair of a mind flayer, further visits up Mount Waterdeep to the monk seemed wise.
"Yeah, only a few times every ten-day," the half-drow said, rolling her eyes. "She also scratched me and tore one of my favorite tops during our training."
"That was an accident," the aasimar lied, and quickly sought to change the subject. "But enough about that. How did you and Aravae end up in Gauntlgrym?"
Mialee's expression went from bemused to grim and she took a long drink of water before answering.
"Aravae and I let the Enclave know about our fight with the necromancer and her undead army outside of Uluvin," she said. "And we also reported on what you had seen during your escape from the Underdark. In response, the Enclave sent a scouting party."
The wood-elf apparently felt the need to fortify herself with another sip from her goblet before continuing, as if it contained alcohol rather than water.
"That scouting party has not been heard from," she continued. "The Underdark just swallowed them up."
"You feel responsible," Jhelnae said, almost whispering and nodding in understanding. "So, you volunteered to be part of the next group sent to the Underdark."
"It was our report that sent them there," Mialee said, suddenly seeming to find the contents of her goblet worth staring at and thereby avoiding eye contact with anyone else. "They went to scout the Underdark while we headed off, carefree, to go relax in the hot springs of the Temple of the Restful Lily."
That trip had been anything but carefree. They'd ended up facing off against a hag coven, though plenty of soaking and relaxing happened after the hags were defeated. Aleina sensed, however, she shouldn't clarify this point with the wood-elf at this time.
"You can't blame yourself," Jhelnae gently admonished. "You only did what you were supposed to do, report on what you learned."
"Friends of ours were among that scouting party," Mialee said, eyes narrowing as she looked up at the half-drow. "And you're saying Aravae and I shouldn't feel responsible? That we shouldn't have volunteered?"
"By all that dances," Jhelnae breathed. "That isn't what I'm saying."
"Well, what are you saying then?" the wood-elf challenged.
Tense moments passed in silence as the two glared at each other.
"I think what Jhelnae is saying," Rhianne interjected, voice calming. "Is that she is glad you are here and the desire to help your missing friends is good and proper. But she doesn't want you to blame yourself, because guilt and blame - they can poison the mind."
The half-drow's expression softened.
"I am glad you and Aravae are here," she said. "It's like the answer to a prayer I didn't even know I made. I just don't feel the two of you should blame yourselves for the reason Rhianne just mentioned."
Mialee drew in a breath and let it out in a long sigh, stiffness draining from her expression and posture as she did.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I lashed out. I know what you are saying is true and well meant. But guilt and self-blame can poison the mind and it has already been at work for a while."
She tapped a finger to her temple.
"It's okay," Aleina said. "Jhelnae understands all too well about lashing out."
"Yeah, Aleina never lashed out," the half-drow said, rolling her eyes. "Never got frustrated during our training on Mount Waterdeep. Never ripped my top. Never scratched me."
"That condescending smile you were giving me," the aasimar said, throwing up her hands. "It was so smug. So self-satisfied. I had to try and wipe it off your face. Had to."
A chuckle ran through the group and the mood lightened.
"We are glad you and Aravae are here," the aasimar said when their shared mirth subsided. "I only wish you were coming with us to Mantol-Derith."
"Morista made us promise we understood that helping secure the way between Gauntlgrym and Blingdenstone for an army Bruenor might send was our primary mission," Mialee said, speaking of the stern-faced Emerald Enclave leader who spoke at the feast. "And that searching for signs of the missing scouting party would be secondary. So, I doubt she'll let us suddenly shift plans and go to Mantol-Derith instead."
"And there are the Zhentarim to consider," Rhianne said. "They control who goes with them to Mantol-Derith and from there Gravenhollow. As I understand it, the Zhentarim begrudged every representative King Bruenor sends and insist the numbers favor them. As it stands, they number eight to our seven. Two more would tip the balance in our favor."
"Which is why," the wood-elf sighed. "We will meet again in Blingdenstone, whatever we might individually wish. I need you both to promise me you'll be safe and take care of Kuhl and Sky as well and make it to Blingdenstone. I don't want to lose anyone else to the Underdark."
"Your journey will be no less dangerous," the darkling bard said. "I traveled the route from Blingdenstone to get here. It was… full of peril."
"We heard," Aleina said, recalling the tale Rhianne told at the feast. "It sounded terrible."
"So, we also need you and Aravae to be safe," Jhelnae said. "And make it to Blingdenstone so we can all be reunited again there."
"The three dwarf Enclave scouts," Mialee said. "Brim, Thargus, and Griswalla, know the Underdark well. And we'll be traveling with the others from the feast as well."
"Diar and I know the Underdark well," the darkling bard said. "But with the coming of the demon lords it is different."
She paused and glanced around the chamber for a moment before continuing.
"You know," she said. "It occurs to me that if there were no demon lords in the Underdark we would not have sought to join any group heading from Gracklstugh to Blingdenstone."
"Which means you would not have met a group of escaped prisoners from Velkynvelve," the aasimar said, understanding.
"Which would mean this home for my people would not be founded," Rhianne said thoughtfully, nodding. "So, something good might come from something bad, as long as a way to banish the demon lords back to the abyss can be found."
"Do you think the Zhentarim are right?" Jhelnae asked. "That this Gravenhollow, this library of the stone giants, might hold an answer for how to banish the demon lords."
"If any place would," the darkling bard said. "It would be Gravenhollow. Stories say the stone giant god Skoraeus Stonebones found a titanic geode, a hollow sphere of stone with crystal formations, so imbued with the faerzress it was a nexus for its power. Skoraeus Stonebones then carved and honed, weaving in his own power of divination, until the library he fashioned became a focus of the faerzress and moved out of time, a place where the past, present, and future exist simultaneously. Legend says every event that has ever occurred, ever will occur, in the Underdark is recorded in the library. I myself sought to find it, along with Diar, where we planned on researching possible locations for a darkling settlement. Strange we may be actually going there now after the settlement has already been founded."
"Every event that has ever occurred?" Aleina said, arching an eyebrow. "Ever will occur? How is that even possible?"
"I merely repeat what stories say," Rhianne said with a shrug of her glowing tattooed shoulders. "Which always have a bit of truth in them."
"I just had a disturbing thought," the half-drow said. "We learned the faerzress was the source of our bad dreams."
"Perhaps not source," the darkling bard amended, nodding. "But at least relayed them on from whatever their source."
"If Gravenhollow is a nexus of the faerzress," Jhelnae said. "A focus. It might now be a place of nightmare where the librarians there have been driven mad by bad dreams."
Rhianne and Aleina shared a troubled look. What their friend said made sense.
"Hopefully that isn't the case," the darkling bard said.
"Bad dreams?" Mialee asked.
"We all had horrible dreams in the Underdark," the aasimar explained, instinctively crossing her arms and hugging herself. "Probably will have them again. Nightmares of running from cackling gnolls, bellowing minotaurs, or an endless horde of zombies you can never escape."
"And some dreamt of bathing in a grotto and finding a dark handsome man watching," the half-drow said, casting an accusing glare at Aleina and Rhianne. "Which is supposedly horrible because his eyes burn with the promise of all the sinful things he will do with you."
"You never had the dream," the aasimar said, blushing at the memory of it. "If you did, you would know it really is horrible."
Her voice didn't sound convincing even to her own ears. Neither did the darkling bard's words of support.
"It really was horrible."
The guilty, embarrassed look Aleina and Rhianne shared was likely less convincing still.
"I don't know," Mialee said contemplatively. "That nightmare doesn't really sound all that bad."
"By all that dances," Jhelnae scoffed in a laughing huff. "Tell me about it!"
This was painful hard for me to write. I think I know the reason. My original plan was to get straight into the adventure and the journey to Mantol-Derith and perhaps convey some of this information in the thoughts of the POV character. But some instinct kept telling me that, now that I had re-introduced Rhianne, Diarnghan, Mialee, and Aravae after so much time, I had to give a bit of context to their motivations for journeying to the Underdark. On the flip side that meant I had a chapter of 4 OCs just sitting around chatting about their motivations on a fan fiction site of all places and I know that is NOT a good thing. So, all the while I was trying to write this a little voice kept nagging in my head that I was working on a completely unnecessary chapter and I should scrap it and skip ahead to Mantol-Derith. Hence, it progressed slowly... but it is FINALLY done and I can move on.